The World Maker Faire New York is a lot to take in. I'm not sure I really saw all of it during the two days. There isn't a more natural location for the World Maker Faire New York than the New York Hall of Science.

Here's the issue our nation is facing: The inability of the non-military side of our public institutions to process complex problems. Today, this competence and especially the capacity to solve technical challenges often exist only in the private sector.

I have been attending this Maker Faire for years. It is amazing to see how popular the event has become, drawing over 100,000 this year. But, I saw little of the ethnic diversity that we celebrate in the San Francisco Bay Area. African-American and Hispanic families were few and far between.

The United States was once first in the world in college graduation rates, we are now 14th. Many well-known speakers from very diverse fields at see the need for educational change as a societal, economic and moral imperative